Trouble in Paradise (Jesse Stone Novels) [Mass Market Paperback]

Robert B. Parker (Author)

Book Description

Series: Jesse Stone Novels | Publication Date: October 1, 1999

Stiles Island is a wealthy and exclusive enclave separated by a bridge from the Massachusetts coastal town of Paradise. A group of ex-cons plan to blow the bridge and loot the island, and Paradise police chief Jesse Stone already has his hands full.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Robert Parker's Trouble in Paradise imagines an old-fashioned tough guys' world where most of the women are summed up by their figures and the men are measured by their ability to intimidate. Chief Jesse Stone of Paradise, Massachusetts, is Parker's hero again in this sequel to Night Passage. When he's not thinking about what his girlfriends look like under their clothes, Stone's touring his beat, hanging out at the Gray Gull Hotel bar to get intelligence on local thugs, or interrogating teens about their destructive pranks. But he has a vulnerable side, too, and Parker adds new layers of depth and complexity to his latest series character. Jesse's still reeling from his divorce. He and his ex-wife, Jenn, are not entirely ready to let go. In fact, Jenn has followed Jesse east from L.A. and is suffering in the Boston climate as one of the anchors on the local news. Romance with Jenn is further complicated by Jesse's ongoing attraction to attorney Abby Taylor and his emerging relationship with realtor Marcy Campbell.

Jesse's domestic troubles are gradually overshadowed, however, when ex-con Jimmy Macklin arrives in town. Macklin plans to pull "the mother of all stickups" on the ritzy Stiles Island in Paradise Harbor. He has figured out that the Stiles Island bridge, with its underpinning of utility cables and pipes, is a veritable lifeline to the mainland, and he's gathered a rogues' gallery of professional crooks and killers to help him take the bridge and make the island into a thieves' paradise. The one problem: Macklin never figured that Paradise, Massachusetts, would have a police chief as tough and resourceful as Jesse Stone.

As usual, Parker's stark and facile prose perfectly complements the masculine sufferings of his hero, and the action of the novel unfolds with an effortlessness that intimates a craftsman at work. With Parker's Spenser safely canonized as a detective fiction legend, Jesse Stone's unfolding world offers a welcome new addition to Parker's ouevre. --Patrick O'Kelley --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Tough and tight, Parker's second Jesse Stone crime novel (after last year's Night Passage) finds the chief of police of modest Paradise, Mass., battling a ruthless gang of thieves even as he jousts with personal demons. Two parallel plotlines tell the story. One follows career criminal James Macklin and his moll, Faye, and their planning and subsequent execution of the heist of all the money and valuables on super-rich Stiles Island, which is connected by bridge to Paradise. Meanwhile, there's Stone, a cool customer who's not afraid to step on wealthy toes but who can't get his love life in order and can barely control his taste for booze. The crime line is the stronger of the two, traced in prose as lean as any Parker has wrought, a grand little caper tale in its own right as Macklin collects a rogue's gallery of accomplices, isolates Stiles Island by dynamiting its bridge and harbor, then preys upon its inhabitants. Stone's romantic entanglements, particularly his troubled relationship with his ex-wife, add texture to the novel and are notably less sentimental than the amours of his Spenser stories. They manifest at times in a histrionic way, however?as when the ex assaults a woman trying to get Stone fired?that retards the surge of the crime story. Stone remains a magnetic character, as silent as Spenser is chatty but equally strong, though likely too enigmatic at this juncture to engender the sort of reader affection that Spenser enjoys. Parker fans and all who love muscular crime writing will appreciate this tale, as the Boston-based crime master once again shows how to do it well, and with style. BOMC main selection.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Jove (October 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0515126497
• ISBN-13: 978-0515126495
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (74 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #618,111 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert B. Parker (1932-2010) has long been acknowledged as the dean of American crime fiction. His novel featuring the wise-cracking, street-smart Boston private-eye Spenser earned him a devoted following and reams of critical acclaim, typified by R.W.B. Lewis' comment, "We are witnessing one of the great series in the history of the American detective story" (The New York Times Book Review). In June and October of 2005, Parker had national bestsellers with APPALOOSA and SCHOOL DAYS, and continued his winning streak in February of 2006 with his latest Jesse Stone novel, SEA CHANGE.

Born and raised in Massachusetts, Parker attended Colby College in Maine, served with the Army in Korea, and then completed a Ph.D. in English at Boston University. He married his wife Joan in 1956; they raised two sons, David and Daniel. Together the Parkers founded Pearl Productions, a Boston-based independent film company named after their short-haired pointer, Pearl, who has also been featured in many of Parker's novels.

Parker began writing his Spenser novels in 1971 while teaching at Boston's Northeastern University. Little did he suspect then that his witty, literate prose and psychological insights would make him keeper-of-the-flame of America's rich tradition of detective fiction. Parker's fictional Spenser inspired the ABC-TV series Spenser: For Hire. In February 2005, CBS-TV broadcast its highly-rated adaptation of the Jesse Stone novel Stone Cold, which featured Tom Selleck in the lead role as Parker's small-town police chief. The second CBS movie, Night Passage, also scored high ratings, and the third, Death in Paradise, aired on April 30, 2006.

Parker was named Grand Master of the 2002 Edgar Awards by the Mystery Writers of America, an honor shared with earlier masters such as Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen.

Parker died on January 19, 2010, at the age of 77.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Engagiong, and nearly as good as the best Spenser books., December 2, 1998

By 

James C. Fraser-Paige (San Leandro, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Trouble in Paradise (Hardcover)

Jesse Stone got off to a shaky start in "Night Passage." In this second outing for the character, Parker has come quickly up to speed and I'm glad. I've read ever book this author has written and suffered through the occasional doldrums. This novel was like returning home.As a cop, I read crime fiction with a sharp - and somewhat jaundiced - eye. I can find fault with minor details in this book, but not enough to get in the way of enjoying it. The plot moves along at a good pace, switching points of view with alternating chapters. It is somewhat cinematic in this respect, telling the story from both places and allowing the reader to more fully understand the story. The characters are solid and well written. A hero like Stone or Spenser needs quality villains to oppose and there are two in this one, if you don't count the townswoman of whom Stone makes an enemy in the course of doing his job.If there are more Jesse Stone novels to come, bring them on! I'll enjoy learning more about his world, just as I did learning about Spenser's.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Old Robert B. Parker is almost back., September 28, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Trouble in Paradise (Hardcover)

Is it me, or are the Spenser novels getting a little stale? Parker seems to have started telling the same story over and over again, from Crimson Joy on up to the present. Spenser always knows what to do to make things come out perfectly. Does anyone remember the early Spenser, who didn't always know what to do? The Spenser of "Mortal Stakes" (a brilliant detective novel) who ambushed and murdered the villian and his cohort so that his clients could get out from beneath their shadow? I miss the Spenser who who committed morally suspect acts in order to fulfull his own personal code. And then came Jesse Stone, Parker's alternate protagonist. He's troubled, he's flawed, he's an incomplete human being trying to find a new place for himself. He doesn't always know what to do, and he has potential to mess up. Parker was on the verge of rediscovering depth of character in "Night Passage" and he's found it with "Trouble In Paradise." In the villain Macklin (among others...all the criminals in this book are amazing) we see a character who makes sense because his motivations are in place: he's greedy, he wants money, and he downright enjoys being a criminal. Further, Parker shows his incredible understanding of small town Massachusetts dynamics, politics, and corruption in the Jesse Stone books. He truly is on the verge of becoming great again as author. Give him a chance.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A typical Robert Parker book, February 11, 2000

By 

Old Fisherman "Jim" (Orange, California USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Trouble in Paradise (Jesse Stone Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)

When reading any of Robert Parker's novels it's difficult not to compare his protagonist with Spenser, Parker's most famous character. However, Jesse Stone, police chief of Paradise, Mass. is not Spenser. He is Spenser-like in that he's self assured, competent, and has a dry sense of humor.

The story revolves around an attempted heist of all the valuables on ritzy Stiles Island. Career criminal James Macklin assembles a crew of specialists who plan to isolate the island from the nearby mainland and at their leisure pluck all of the residents clean of anything valuable. Of course, they don't realize they'll have to deal with Jesse Stone.

I didn't like the book as much as I like the Spenser novels. This is probably not fair to Parker because when this book is compared to other authors in writing in the same genre it is very good indeed. The sharp Parker dialogue is there along with the rapidly moving pace of the whole novel. A real Chief of Police wouldn't be able to get away with some of the things that Jesse Stone does, but hey, this IS fiction after all. All-in-all a good book for mystery lovers.